


Oh, shit, it’s Christmas!

by wilwarindi



Series: Caught on Fire [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Christmas fic, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, background Lilith/Roland - Freeform, colorblind Mordecai (deuteranopia)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-22 14:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13169079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilwarindi/pseuds/wilwarindi
Summary: In which Mordecai forgets about Christmas (several times).The awesome foursome’s first real Christmas on Pandora, which is also Brick and Mordecai’s first Christmas as a couple.[Missing scene from Caught on Fire]





	Oh, shit, it’s Christmas!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mordecry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mordecry/gifts), [biggestdisappointmentinwarfare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/biggestdisappointmentinwarfare/gifts), [FangFero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangFero/gifts).



> **Featuring:** Mordy is a forgetful bird, Brick and Lilith give the best gifts, mysterious cake-thingies, mistletoe shenanigans 
> 
> **Warnings:** Alcohol use/Alcoholism
> 
> I had literally no idea there was a Borderlands gift exchange! I have searched and searched for this fandom and haven’t found many people to interact with. Anyway, I decided to do a thing for Christmas at the last minute, which probably explains the theme of this fic, because of the whole missed the gift exchange event and also because I’m sad the upcoming Mercenary Day chapter for Caught on Fire (Chapter 16, it seems) won’t be done anywhere near Christmas. I originally thought it would be done way before Christmas, but suddenly here we are. 
> 
> This is set after Chapter 6 of CoF (somewhere in the massive time skipping collage that is Chapter 7).
> 
> Merry (late) Christmas to biggestdisappointmentinwarfare, mordecry and FangFero. You guys are awesome and the best ^^! And you better play nice and share this gift, 'cause I ain't making another one this year :)
> 
> Special thanks to TrashiestofTrash for helping with the title, because, amazingly, I just couldn't think of it myself, and to biggestdisappointmentinwarfare, mordecry and AStateOfMindOverMatter for their A+ suggestions when I got stuck with this. 
> 
> This is un-beta'd, so any mistakes are my fault.
> 
> Team effort, guys!

“You guys are coming over next Wednesday?” Lilith asked.

Mordecai didn’t look over from his inventory. He was selling the loot he’d collected in his raid to a bandit camp today, and he wanted to make sure he didn’t sell any gun he actually wanted to keep. He’d done that before, and getting them back was a bitch if you didn’t immediately realize it and bought it back. Sure, Marcus could re-sell you a legendary you’d mistakenly sold to him, but he would only do so by charging you an arm and a leg. Plus, a few dead bandits.

Mordecai mulled the question over distractedly. Next Wednesday? In, what, a week? He didn’t remember making plans with Roland and Lilith for next week. They never did plan to get together so far ahead, not unless it was someone’s birthday, and they were done for the year as far as Mordecai knew. He made a quick list: Lilith in March, Roland in May, Brick in July and Mordecai in September. Yeah, they were done for the year.

“Uh, sure?”

“Good. I mean, there’s gonna be a big thing at the headquarters the next day, but on Wednesday we wanted something more quiet.”

Mordecai blinked. _Wait, what?_

He stared at Lilith. “Are you... getting married?”

If he’d forgotten about _that_ , he’d have hell to pay.

Lilith’s face contorted into a mix of shock and horror and incredulity. Mordecai would have loved to take a picture if he wasn’t fearing she’d burn him to a crisp where he stood.

“ _What_?”

“Uh…” Maybe Mordecai shouldn’t have asked like that and tried to ease into it instead, but he’d been caught off guard and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“It’s _Christmas_ , Mordecai! No one’s getting _married_!” The way she said the word “married”, you’d think he couldn’t have said anything that disgusted her more.

Oh. _Oh_.

Mordecai knew the date, of course, but he’d also failed to… realize that that meant Christmas (also known as Mercenary Day by the locals) was approaching. And yes, that meant it was next week.

 _Shit_.

“Shit,” he muttered.

He hadn’t celebrated Christmas in years. Well, last year he’d technically spent it with Roland and Lilith and Brick, but they’d also been stuck in the middle of the Dahl Headlands with no Fast Travel yet. They’d all tried to pretend there wasn’t anything special about the date and scattered all over the Headlands doing their own thing, although they had gotten together for a drink at the end of the day and had a surprisingly good time.

But this sounded serious; a _real_ Christmas day.

“What, you forgot about Christmas?” Lilith asked.

“Not… really. Not exactly. I just didn’t realize it was so soon,” Mordecai said, desperately trying to remember what normal people did for Christmas.

Lilith snorted. “Well, it is.”

“So… What are you planning?”

Lilith shrugged. “Food. Drinks. Nothing too big.”

That didn’t sound too bad. “Ok.”

“So, you’re coming over?”

“I guess. Didn’t have any plans,” Mordecai said.

Lilith hummed. “I don’t know, maybe you could book a getaway to some place sunny after all.”

She’d suggested it a while back; that after she and Roland took care of the remaining Crimson Lance forces in Old Haven, Brick and Mordecai could take a vacation. They had come back from Old Haven a couple of days ago, followed by a surprising amount of ex-Lance soldiers; so many of them that they were still trying to accommodate them all inside New Haven.

Going somewhere sunny didn’t sound half bad, if Mordecai was honest, but it was too late to do that now. It’d be too expensive. Plus, Christmas was supposed to be spent with family and friends, right?

“Maybe after Christmas,” he said.

Lilith nodded and smiled. “Sure. Just let us know.”

* * *

Mordecai spent most of his free time in Brick’s apartment for the last few weeks, since they’d (finally) become a thing. He'd told Brick to let him know if he wanted some space, some privacy or something, but Brick seemed more inclined on doing the opposite, in keeping Mordecai as close as he could.

Mordecai still grinned like an idiot when he thought about it. And he felt very much the same, which was surprising in him. Mordecai got bored and tired around people; not Brick, though. Not now that they'd finally stopped dancing around each other.

He remembered Lilith’s invitation that night, while Brick dozed off to a new episode of Alive on Promethea he’d sworn he really wanted to watch.

Mordecai nudged him. “Hey, Lilith invited us over next week.”

Brick blinked. “Huh?”

“Yeah. For Christmas?”

Brick stopped rubbing his eyes and frowned. “What, Christmas?”

Mordecai couldn’t hold back a relieved smile. He hadn’t expected Brick to remember, really, but it was still good to know he wasn’t the only one who forgot about the date. That would have made him feel like an asshole.

“Yeah, I forgot too. It’s next week. They wanna do a thing on Wednesday, and on Thursday there’s gonna be a big thing, with the Raiders and the rest of New Haven. For morale or some bullshit.”

Brick stretched and slid an arm around his shoulders. Mordecai huffed at the chessy move, but snuggled up to him anyway. He stretched up until he could press a kiss against Brick’s jaw and when Brick turned his head to return the kiss, Mordecai reached around quickly and stole the remote from his hand.

Mordecai turned back to the TV and switched the channel. He hated most of the ECHO shows Brick liked, and vice versa. Common ground on that subject was still proving difficult to find.

“Hey, I was watching that!” Brick protested.

“No, you weren’t. You were dozing off.”

Brick frowned. “But I’m awake _now_.”

Mordecai ignored his whining.

Brick pouted silently until Mordecai had found something _he_ liked and settled down, and then he tried to steal the remote back. Mordecai managed to dodge him and switched the remote to his other hand; he stretched his arm as far away from Brick as he could, but he left himself open and Brick took a chance to tickle him.

“No, stop!” Mordecai, twitching violently and trying not to laugh, did his best to squirm away, but Brick had a good hold around him.

Brick stopped tickling. “Gimme that,” he warned against his ear.

Mordecai didn’t hesitate. He wouldn’t back down, not even if Brick was stronger and had a larger reach than him. That wasn’t who Mordecai was; if he was going down, he’d take everyone with him and Brick had better learn that now.

There was only one way out of this.

“Never,” Mordecai said and threw the remote across the room.

Brick pulled away from him, just a little, and stared. “Seriously?”

Mordecai stared back without blinking. “Check mate.”

Brick kept watching him for another moment, then burst out laughing. Mordecai pulled him down and gave him a messy kiss.

* * *

With the knowledge and relief that Brick hadn’t kept track of Christmas either, Mordecai relaxed. He wouldn’t get a big, thoughtful gift and have nothing to give in return. Between that and the hundred other things they had to do in the following days, the thought of Christmas completely slipped his mind again until Monday.

Lilith, Brick and Mordecai had been talking about their next raid, and that had led to a tangent on the cooled off Hodunk-Zaford war, which had led to a debate about the merits of whiskey or rakk ale and which clan should be wiped out based on the drinks they made. They didn’t get to any unanimous conclusion, mostly because Brick didn’t care enough about the argument to take any one side, and it was getting late. They were saying their goodbyes and getting ready to go their own ways when Lilith remembered something.

“Oh, yeah. Can you bring something for dessert on Wednesday? And a few drinks.”

Mordecai opened his mouth to ask what for, but Brick reacted first.

“Sure.”

“We’re doing presents that day. Thursday there’s gonna be too many people.”

Mordecai was gripped by a very familiar feeling of “oh fuck”.

“Sounds good,” Brick said.

 _Oh, shit fuck goddammit._ Christmas. Presents.

Right, that was a thing people did on Christmas. He knew it, but, again, he had sort of failed to connect the facts that he needed to actually _buy_ presents if he wanted to, you know, _have_ any presents to give.

Mordecai tried to think about what to do and he didn’t notice Lilith leaving at all. He’d have to think of what to buy, and of course, since he _had to_ do it, his mind was infuriatingly blank. He’d have to go buy stuff soon - as in: _right now_ \- and try to find a balance between what he wanted to get and money and whatever crap what left so close to Christmas.

Holly crap, he was a shitty friend. And a shitty… dating friend? Or whatever it was he and Brick were; they weren’t in a rush to find a name for what they were just yet. Anyway, he was a shitty whatever-they-were. Mordecai had pondered what to get Brick as a gift, sure, but he’d still forgotten all about it.

“Mordy?”

Mordecai startled and looked at Brick. “Huh?”

“You ok?”

 _No._ “Yeah. Zoned out for a second.”

Brick gave him a look that said ‘ _what else is new_ ’, but didn’t comment and only pulled Mordecai by the hand. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

Mordecai allowed himself to be led away, too focused on trying to put order in his scattered thoughts. There was no need to panic; he could still save this and not look like a complete jerk in front of his friends.

* * *

Despite it all, Mordecai managed to buy somewhat generic, but still decent gifts at the last minute. He wasn’t especially proud of them, but he wasn’t ashamed either and he wouldn’t arrive empty handed, so that was a small win.

The dessert Lilith requested ended up being a bigger fuss than any presents.  Brick and Mordecai didn't cook much; Mordecai burned everything he tried setting next to a flame and Brick got bored by any food that took longer than ten minutes. But they didn’t have a lot of choices of what to buy, and Brick kept disapproving of them all, and so Mordecai somehow ended up being talked into baking. Between the two of them, they could make something decent, surely.

_How hard could it be?_

Neither Brick nor Mordecai really wanted to do the baking, so they started too late, and they probably took way too long to do every single step on top of that, as they had to look all over the place for some ingredients. By the time the mixture was done and thrown unceremoniously into the oven, both of them were stained with flour and Mordecai was half way through the flask of whiskey he’d meant to take to the party as his only drink. He was trying to cut down, after all, but it already seemed like that plan was out the window.

Brick wiped his hands on his jeans and left floury handprints all over the front. “There! Finally.”

Mordecai watched him with the jaded indifference of the people who have long since stopped giving a damn and are only waiting for the sweet release of death. “We’re almost an hour late.”

“Oh.” Brick looked at the time in his ECHO. “Yeah. Well, it’s still early.”

Mordecai made a noise of agreement; not because he agreed, but because he didn't have any more fucks to give about this. He'd accepted they were going to be late and arrive with a probably shitty cake-thingy and Roland and Lilith would have their hides. Mordecai wouldn’t be answering any calls from those two, though.

“You should go change,” he said, pointing at Brick’s jeans.

Brick looked down. “I guess. But it ain’t too bad.”

Mordecai stood up from his place on the counter. “We can’t leave until the thing is cooked, though. Might as well clean up. I have another shirt around here, right?”

Before he could leave the cramped kitchen, Brick reached his side in a couple strides. He tugged at Mordecai’s shirt and gave it a thoughtful look.

“Yeah, you should change out of that. Need any help?”

Mordecai chuckled and tried not to make it too obvious that all he wanted was to grin like an idiot again. “I can dress myself.”

“I mean taking it off.” Subtle as always.

“You gonna need help with your pants, too?”

“Probably,” Brick said and kissed him.

Mordecai kissed back, briefly. “The cake-thingy is gonna get burned if we don’t watch it.”

“We can keep it short.”

“Wow. You make it sound _so_ tempting,” Mordecai said dryly. Brick laughed. “C’mon. They’re gonna be pissed off enough as it is.”

* * *

Lilith opened the door wearing a Santa hat and a sweater with white blinking lights on it. She huffed when she saw them.

“What took you guys so long?”

  _fanart by mordecry  
_

Brick presented her with their lopsided, yet surprisingly decent looking cake-thingy. “We were busy.”

Lilith stared at the cake-thingy with raised eyebrows. “You… you made that?”

“Yep!” Brick replied brightly.

Mordecai snorted. “Only because he insisted we should bring something we made ourselves.”

“Aw, that was sweet. Looks nice,” Lilith said. “C’mon in.”

Mordecai had expected her to be a lot more annoyed at their delay, to be honest.

“Sorry we’re late,” he said as he walked in.

Lilith closed the door behind them. “Eh, we figured you wouldn’t be on time. You never are.” Mordecai gave her an unapologetic shrug. “Anyway, dinner’s not even ready yet.”

Brick was looking around for a place to leave their cake-thingy and Lilith pointed at the table.

Mordecai looked in the direction of the kitchen. Roland appeared at the door with a dish towel thrown over one shoulder and a glass of wine in one hand.

“Hey, guys.”

“Hey. You’re cooking? We’re not all gonna die horribly of food poisoning?” Mordecai asked, keeping an eye on Lilith as he said it.

Lilith didn’t pay him any heed. But that was a line of teasing that had a fifty-fifty chance of ending up poorly for Mordecai, anyway. He couldn’t cook any more than Lilith could.

Roland tactfully ignored the last part, too. “Yeah. I got home a little late, though. Lost track of time.”

“Hey, nice Christmas tree!” Brick said.

Mordecai turned to look at what Brick was talking about. He’d seen the tree but hadn’t paid attention to it. Tucked in a corner in the small living room was an actual, goddamned pine tree - it _smelled_ of pine. Not a huge one, but still an actual tree. It was decorated with strings of lights and some Christmassy figures, but also psychos masks and what looked like a couple semi-transparent crystals as big as one of Brick’s fists - constructor bot’s eyes.

“Wow, that’s very…” Mordecai searched for the right word. “Pandoran.”

“Lilith has a good eye,” Roland said, a proud smile on his face. “And it’s a Mercenary Day tree, Brick, remember?”

Brick shrugged. “Same difference.”

“We’re trying to build something with the locals. We have to assimilate.”

Mordecai gave Roland a look. “Yeah, and it really helps that you call them ‘ _the locals_ ’.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong,” Roland pointed out, ever the diplomat. Mordecai smiled to himself; his friends knew him well enough to ignore most of the sarcasm he spilled as a knee-jerk reaction. “But I need to check on the food.”

“You can put your gifts under the tree,” Lilith said after Roland disappeared into the kitchen again.

Mordecai groaned. _Oh, goddammit._

“I, uh… I left my presents at home.” Mordecai checked his pockets and cursed internally again. “ _Great_. Brick, can you lend me your keys?”

Brick stood up from where he’d been laying his presents down. He unhooked his keys from the chain he always carried them on and threw them at Mordecai.

“You have them at my place?”

“No, but I left the keys to my place at _your_ place. I’ll be right back.”

Mordecai had barely seen the inside of his own apartment in the past few weeks. It didn’t contain the best memories, so it wasn't like he missed it much, but it was a good place to keep anything he didn’t want Brick to find. And Brick would’ve peeked into any presents if he’d found them.

“Aw, you guys are _adorable_ ,” Lilith cooed. Mordecai huffed. “If you’re going out, though, we could use more coffee. We’re out.”

“Do your own damn grocery shopping,” Mordecai grumbled.

“C’mon, don’t be an ass,” Lilith said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll pay you when you come back.”

Mordecai sighed. “Fine.”

“Hey, mistletoe,” Brick said, pointing above Mordecai’s head.

There was a mistletoe branch hanging from the ceiling. Mordecai had been standing here for a while, but, of course, he hadn’t looked up until now. In fact, he’d been here while talking to Roland just now; talk about dodging a bullet.

Mordecai looked back down and at Lilith, who was standing next to him. He wrinkled his nose. “Oh, _ew_.”

He loved Lilith, but very much in a sister-like way. Or, what he imagined would be a sister-like way, since he’d never had any siblings.

Lilith scoffed. “Oh, come here, you big baby.” She tugged him down by the collar (with more force than strictly necessary in Mordecai’s opinion) and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “There. Now go buy coffee.”

Mordecai wiped his cheek with a disgusted expression and Lilith punched him in the arm. Brick snickered, watching them. Mordecai gave him a dirty look, but he left without another word.

* * *

Mordecai’s hand hovered over one of the bottles he had squirreled away in a cabinet, hidden behind some empty cans. This was his apartment, no one but him came in here, and yet he still hid his booze - like a rat, like a thief. He’d thrown away most of it months ago, but he’d restocked on a couple bottles eventually.

This was one more reason he didn’t like being here. He had stashes and no one to keep him in line. He rarely drank in Brick’s place, and when he did it wasn’t in front of him; but here, he was alone with the memories of lying in a stupor, of wanting to claw his own skin off just to feel some form of pain more tangible than the one that seeped inside his bones and nestled inside his chest.

Mordecai pulled his hand away and shut the cabinet door. He opened it again, took the bottle out, uncapped it, and used it to refill his almost empty flask. That would have to do for today.

* * *

The cake-thingy was too sweet, as it turned out. Brick saw no problem with it, he said with his mouth full and covered in crumbs.

Roland’s cooking was, of course, pretty good. He’d been the only one to do anything more elaborate than pasta when they’d been hunting for the vault, and he remained infuriatingly capable in most aspects of adult life.

When they unwrapped presents, it didn’t take them long to realize something was really amiss. As it turned out, Mordecai and Roland had bought basically the same (overpriced) gun tech to give as presents: ammo SDUs for Lilith and Brick (who fought too close and too fast to stop to pick up ammo mid fight) and scopes for each other’s weapons of choice.

Mordecai was the first one to realize who the culprit was.

“Oh my god,” he muttered, covering his face with a hand. “Marcus.”

Mordecai had still been entirely out of ideas by the point he could sneak off to buy presents. He really should have suspected more off of Marcus’ eagerness to sell him some of his most expensive shit, but he’d been too desperate for suggestions to think it over much.

“What?”

“You bought this from Marcus, right?” Not that there were many other people to buy things _from_. “He basically pushed this on my hands. Some of his ‘best merchandize’, he said. Was real insistent, too.”

Roland’s expression went from realization to indignation to resignation on record time. “Ah. You didn’t know what to buy, either?”

“Nope.” Mordecai chuckled and took a drink from his flask. “Easy prey. Classic Marcus.”

“‘ _No refunds_ ’,” Roland added, doing his best Marcus impression.

Brick had been more imaginative. He’d gotten Roland a coffee mug with the words “World’s Best Dad” printed on the side.

“Uhhh… thanks,” Roland said, clearly not knowing how to react beyond basic politeness.

Brick laughed. “You’re welcome. There’s also some real coffee in there.”

Roland looked back in the box and expression lit up. He deeply missed coffee, but all they had around Pandora was third rate coffee substitute that tasted like burnt seaweed and was made of who-knows-what. “ _Thank you_.”

Brick had also gotten a Firehawk pistol for Lilith, and the delight on her face was almost creepy. She’d always wanted a Firehawk pistol and kept complaining about how hard they were to get.

“Found it a little while back,” Brick said with a proud grin.

Mordecai had heard it from Brick when it happened, and Brick had mentioned he wanted to give it to Lilith, but Mordecai had forgotten about it until now.

Lilith laughed and leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek. “You’re awesome, Brick.”

“Hey, hey, hands off!” Mordecai warned, wagging a finger at her.

“Pff, right. Like he even _liked_ women,” Lilith said in a huff.

“I like _you_ , though,” Brick said.

Lilith smiled and put up her hand. Brick fistbumped her.

By then, Mordecai was dreading opening his gift from Brick almost as much as he was looking forward to it. He (and Roland) had clearly been out-done by Brick, which, to be honest, neither of them had expected.

Mordecai decided to rip off that particular bandage as quickly as he could. He tore open the box carelessly, like a little kid, and saw…

“Huh.” Mordecai picked up a glove from inside the box. It looked much like the ones he usually wore, but, well, newer. “Thanks.”

Brick didn’t answer and just kept watching him. Mordecai tried the glove on. It fit right, although it was too loose around the wrist; but that wasn’t unusual, that always happened to him with new gloves and he knew how to fix it. When he picked up the other one, though, he saw the smaller box under them, and what looked like a new bandana.

Mordecai opened the new box and stared silently at the goggles that fell into his open hand.

“I wanted to give you those for your birthday, but they got here too late.” Mordecai looked up at him, a strange swelling of emotion forming in his chest. “The ones you have look scratched as hell,” Brick added.

It wasn’t a romantic gift, but it was… personal, in a way. His goggles were one thing Mordecai just couldn’t do without, he felt naked when he wasn’t wearing them. Still, he couldn’t say he understood why getting a new pair from Brick made his eyes prickle. Maybe he shouldn’t have had so much to drink.

Mordecai put the box down, scooted closer, grabbed Brick’s face and kissed him. Brick smiled against his lips.

“Aw. You got yourself a sugar daddy, Mordy,” Lilith said.

Mordecai pulled away from Bick just enough to retort: “Shut up. I’m older.”

Brick leaned his forehead against Mordecai’s. “Pfft, barely.”

“Three whole years, Brick,” Mordecai argued with a very serious expression.

“If that’s your only argument,” Lilith said with a huff, though she was smiling. She stood up. “Ok. I knew none of you would be Christmassy, you cowards. Time for _my_ presents.”

“Oh, boy,” Roland muttered, amused.

None of the others had really noticed how she'd left her turn for last. Lilith scooped up the last boxes from under the tree and handed them over to her friends. Brick tore open his present first, of course; he peered inside and started laughing.

“I couldn’t find any clothing your size,” Lilith said. “So, I got you those.”

Brick picked up a pair of fluffy antlers mounted on a headband, still laughing. “You want me to wear _these_?”

“They’ll look good on you! Here.” Lilith took the headband, stretched it as far as she could and carefully placed it on Brick’s head. “See? Adorable.”

Brick looked at Mordecai. “How do I look?”

‘ _Ridiculous_ ’, Mordecai thought, even though he had a sudden urge to kiss Brick again.

“Wait, there are more things.” Lilith reached inside Bricks gift box. “Here, a red nose. And a tie.”

Brick’s laughter, which had subsided almost entirely, exploded up again. He grabbed the tie, loosened it and tried to put it over his head, but it got tangled in the fluffy antlers.

Lilith batted his hands away and took the tie back. “Stay still.” She maneuvered the tie around the antlers and over Brick’s head until it was sitting around his neck. “There! Now the nose.”

Brick did as he was told, chuckling the entire time.

“Huh,” Roland said quietly, and when Mordecai looked at him he saw that he was grinning.

Roland pulled out a blue sweater from the box and turned it over so Mordecai could see the snowman on the front of it.

“Wow. That’s ugly,” Mordecai blurted out.

“Hey! Ugly Christmas sweaters are part of what Christmas is all about,” Lilith protested.

“It’s kinda cute,” Roland said.

“See? That’s a _good_ attitude, Mordecai.”

Mordecai rolled his eyes. “We didn’t do ugly ass sweaters on Artemis. The place is hot all year.”

“Hey, what’s this?” Roland said before Lilith could reply. He pulled out a beret from the box.

“New hat. The old one will be ritually burnt,” Lilith told him.

Roland looked at her, shocked and alarmed. “What? Lilith, you can’t -”

“I was kidding.” Lilith cut him off, holding a hand in a placating gesture. “Though I’d burn it if it was up to me. It’s really ugly.”

“It has sentimental value,” Roland countered.

“You can’t really give him shit over ugly hats when you just gave him an ugly sweater,” Mordecai chimed in.

Lilith gave him an unimpressed look. “You’re really gonna like your present, then, Mordy.”

Mordecai sighed and opened his own box and, of course, there was also a sweater inside it, but this one didn’t look so bad. Or especially Christmassy.

“See?” Lilith asked with raised eyebrows.

Mordecai shrugged. “Better than the snowman.”

“I disagree,” Roland said.

“Try them on!”

Mordecai gave a put upon grumble, but he stood up anyway as did Roland. Mordecai took off his short sleeved jacket and slid the sweater over his head. Unsurprisingly, it was way too wide for him, but the length seemed about right. He looked over at Roland and saw his snowman sweater was in fact a little tight around the shoulders.

“Good measurement,” Mordecai muttered.

“I didn’t _make_ them, I bought them!” Lilith stood up and tried to adjust Roland’s sweater by pulling it from the neck or the shoulders or the arms without any visible result. “Damn it. Why are your shoulders so wide.”

Roland gave her a toothy grin. “It’s all natural, baby.”

Lilith smacked him on the chest.

Brick, still wearing the fake nose, tugged at Mordecai’s hand. “We’re both reindeers,” he said with a silly, sweet smile. He’d also been drinking, although nowhere near as much as Mordecai.

Mordecai’s stomach fluttered, and he couldn’t help but smile back. The stupid Christmas outfit made Brick look stupidly cute.

“How do you figure?”

Brick pointed at the sweater. “You got a reindeer too.”

Mordecai blinked and looked down. “What? Where?”

There was a moment of very awkward silence, and when Mordecai looked up he saw Lilith and Roland staring at him.

“It’s - it’s right there, Mordecai,” Lilith said, frowning in confusion.

Mordecai looked down again and still saw nothing.

“Oh,” Brick muttered. “Oh, it’s all red and green, Mordy.”

Ah. Well, that explained a lot. “Oh. The reindeer too?”

“No, it’s brown.”

“Wait, what?” Lilith asked.

“I’m colorblind,” Mordecai said with a shrug.

Lilith was still frowning. “Since when?”

Mordecai snorted. “Since always? You don’t exactly _catch_ colorblindness, Lil. You’re born with it.”

“But… Why didn’t you ever mention it? How does that work?”

“I thought I’d told you? I dunno, I just forget about it most of the time. It’s not like people talk about colors all day.”

“Did you know?” Lilith asked Brick.

“He told me a few weeks back.” There was a faint look of pity on Brick’s face that Mordecai did not appreciate in the slightest.

“So, you’re red-green colorblind, right?” Roland asked gently.

“Yep. The goggles help some, but not much.”

As he said it, Mordecai realized the new goggles Brick had gotten him wouldn’t be made for colorblind people. Brick hadn’t known about it back in September. Damn it.

But his old goggles didn’t make much of a difference, anyway, so what was the loss?

Roland stepped closer to him “So, you can see the black and white of it,” he said, and it took Mordecai a second to realize Roland was talking about his new sweater.

Roland waited until Mordecai nodded before continuing. He started pointing at different places over said sweater. “The reindeer’s here. The antlers, the head, body and legs.”

Mordecai’s brain took too long to catch up with what Roland was doing to properly follow what he was describing. When Roland finished talking, Mordecai was caught in an awkward place between embarrassment, anger and gratitude. He knew Roland was trying to help, to take it in stride and not make it awkward, and yet Mordecai felt patronized.

Mordecai looked at Roland and bit his tongue to keep from lashing out.

“I… I overstepped, didn’t I?” Roland said, suddenly looking sheepish.

Mordecai took a deep breath and let it out. “Not exactly. But don’t talk down to me, Roland.”

“That’s not what I... Right. Sorry.” Roland looked at his feet for a second. “I only wanted to help.”

Mordecai sighed. “I know.” He clapped Roland on the shoulder, just to let him know there were no hard feelings.

“So, how does it work?” Lilith asked again.

Mordecai grumbled for a second and sat back down next to Brick. “I can’t see red, basically. Green is… a little out there. So, when I look at this sweater, for example, it all looks the same, except for the white and black bits.”

“So it looks…”

“Like it’s all a single color.”

“What color?”

Mordecai down at the sweater again. “Yellow. Greenish. Something like that.”

“Huh. Weird,” Lilith muttered. “Wait, what color is my hair?”

Mordecai blinked and peered at her head. “What color _is_ your hair?”

“Red.”

“Oh. Huh. Ok, with the goggles I guess I could have guessed that, but I always thought you were blonde.”

Lilith looked almost offended for a second. “Well, I guess that does explain your clothes, though. No color coordination.”

“Hey!” Mordecai protested. Brick snickered.

“But you can see the snowman on Roland’s sweater,” Lilith added.

“Yeah, cause it’s blue. And white. I can see _blue_ , but everything else looks mostly the same.”

“My eyes are blue,” Brick chimed in with a tipsy, happy smile.

Mordecai was sure he was blushing, at least a little, and yet he couldn’t hold back a smile. Again. “Yes, they are. Very blue.”

* * *

They didn’t hang out long after that. They had things to do in the morning - their war with Hyperion wouldn’t stop for any holiday or any of them. Still, Mordecai had gone into really drunk territory by then, with Brick halfway there, so leaving was a long process involving several goodbyes and picking up conversations all over again.

When it seemed like they were really leaving, Roland called after them. “Wait, Mordecai, you forgot your presents.”

Mordecai looked down at his empty hands. “Oh, right.”

Roland picked up a few boxes from where they’d been lying around and handed them over to Mordecai. “I think that’s all of it.”

“If they left anything, we can give it to them tomorrow,” Lilith said.

“Yes, of course.”

Mordecai gave them a drunk smile and  tightened his arms around the boxes. He distantly remembered he’d been standing here earlier and looked up.

“Huh. Mistletoe,” he mumbled.

Roland looked almost alarmed when Mordecai looked down again. He turned to Lilith, for what? Guidance? Permission?

Mordecai snorted and leaned in to press a resounding kiss on the side of Roland’s face. Roland flinched and rubbed his ear, looking at him with a mix of surprise and amusement.

“Ouch. Loud.”

Mordecai shook his head. “Dork. See you guys tomorrow.”

Lilith quirked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything and only waved goodbye as she closed the door after Brick and Mordecai.

There was a rare, serious look on Brick’s eyes; there was a question in his face that Mordecai wanted to avoid having said out loud if at all possible. Why dig out old stories? Old, stupid stories that had never even mattered in the first place? Especially not now. Especially not for something so small.

Mordecai stood close to Brick and tipped his head back to look at him. “Kiss,” he said.

Brick watched him for a few more seconds, but eventually he smiled and kissed him.

“No mistletoe needed,” Mordecai said when Brick pulled away. “Love you.”

Brick studied his face, and there was a flicker of relief in his eyes. Mordecai was equal parts still stunned by the fact that Brick really did think Mordecai was at all worthy of love, and also annoyed that Brick would even doubt that Mordecai loved him, first and foremost, even for a second. Mordecai had decided to go all in with Brick, with them, after coming too close to losing it, and he wasn't about to mess things up or even dwell on one-sided old crushes that had been mostly self-inflicted in the first place. Mordecai was here and now. Mordecai was still scared, terrified even, and yet determined to follow through with what he'd signed up for, to go wherever it took them, and he hadn't regretted it for a single second since making up his mind.

Besides, Brick was still inescapable, with his own gravitational pull and his big open heart always worn so close to his skin. There was nowhere else Mordecai wanted to be or even _could_ be, he felt. This, this is where he belonged - or where he wanted to belong. Whatever. Whichever. Same principle.

“C’mon. Let’s go home,” Mordecai said after a pause.

Brick smiled again, bright and happy and mildly drunk. “Yeah, let’s go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Music mood: [Daniela Andrade - No One But You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrT1RfY8VuM)
> 
> Comments are always welcome and appreciated (please, I'm begging you)
> 
>  [You can find me on Tumblr ](http://wilwarindi.tumblr.com/)


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